TL;DR: While breaking all the rules all the time feels and looks messy, it can be highly effective to break a selected few rules now and again.
Rule of thirds, rule of sunny 16, rule of large numbers, rule of unintended consequences. Don't exceed 55, don't change lanes in intersections, don't park where prohibited. Our world is defined by rules, and sometimes it feels like we're trapped in a web of them. When you start learning photography, you'll find there are lots of rules there, too. It's no surprise that many photographers yearn to break free from these constraints. "I don't like all the rules. I want to break the rules" is a sentiment I hear sometimes.
And I get it. Sometimes I want to throw out the rules and do whatever I feel like in the moment, too. But there's something important to remember: rules typically exist for good reasons. Some ensure our safety and the safety of others, while others represent time-tested wisdom discovered by those who came before us. Granted, photography rules aren't usually life-and-death (unless you're on safari and ignore the "don't get too close to the lions" rule, maybe). They do exist for a reason, though, and are based on centuries of artistic theory.
Consider Pablo Picasso – before creating his revolutionary abstract works, he painted a traditional portrait of his mother. He mastered the fundamentals before transcending them. This deep understanding allowed him to break rules with intention and purpose rather than at random.
When you want to break photographic rules, ask yourself: Have you first taken the time to understand them? Or are you seeking to bypass the learning process entirely and jump straight to rule-breaking? If it's the latter, you're essentially admitting you don't care enough about photography to invest in understanding the basic principles of photography as an art form. Instead, you're hoping blind luck will somehow produce meaningful results. If you're invested enough to enroll in a photography course, though, it tells me that you want to improve, that you want your photographs to be works of art and not just snapshots. You're really doing yourself a disservice if you don't take the time to understand the rules. And if you break the rules without learning them first, you're more likely to make a mess than a revolutionary artistic statement.
True artistic rebellion requires knowledge of what you're rebelling against.
Here is what you can do, though: Take each rule in photography and composition and study it.
1. Why would it be a rule in the first place?
2. What does it do to photographs?
3. How is it helping or hurting a photograph?
After you have studied a rule and answered these questions, you can go ahead and break it. Only that one, though. Now answer this:
1. How is it different now?
2. What does this do to your photograph?
3. How is this helping or hurting?
If you’d like to learn more about the rules of photographic composition — and get some guided practice in breaking them for creative effect — you might want to consider joining our Photography 2 course. We dive deep into all of that, and more.
